Bush Aides Possibly ***Altered***
National Guard Records
To Conceal Grounding and Missed Duty
by Bob Fertik
November 4,****** 2000******
NEWSWEEK reported on July 9, ***2000*** that the Bush
campaign "launched a secretive research operation designed
to scour all records relating to his Vietnam-era service"
during preparation for Bush's 1998 re-election campaign.
They paid "hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers"
$19,000 to review the records. According to NEWSWEEK, one
result of her work was to deflect charges that former Texas
House Speaker Ben Barnes helped Bush get into the Texas Air
National Guard despite low qualifications and a long
waiting list. Barnes was later forced to testify under oath
that he helped Bush.
The same NEWSWEEK article also discusses the absence of
evidence that Bush fulfilled his orders to report for duty
in Alabama in the fall of 1972. According to the article,
"Dan Bartlett conceded that the records 'were either lost
or misplaced... we are not sure.'" If Burkett's charges are
true, Bartlett may have had a hand in losing or misplacing
these records.
http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=171
SEE: Austin Chronicle: W's Paper Chase
Scrubbed: January 2001
George Orwell Bush has repeatedly attempted (and too often
succeeded) in scrubbing public records that are embarassing
or worse (see http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=220). But
here's the most astonishing scrub we've encountered yet -
Bush is trying to scrub the ENTIRE RECORD OF HIS 6 YEARS AS
GOVERNOR OF TEXAS! How is this possible? Back in January,
Bush snuck ALL of his records into Papa Bush's Presidential
Library. And now he won't let Texas archivists anywhere
near them. Why is he hiding them? Perhaps there's proof of
crimes committed during Funeralgate - and perhaps there are
many other scandals we've never heard about. We demand an
investigation!
Burkett stops short of directly accusing Bartlett of
"doctoring" Bush's records. Instead, Burkett faults the
Bush campaign and senior officials of the Texas National
Guard for incompetence in failing to release two key
documents that would answer questions about Bush's absence
from duty - but not his grounding from flight.
Burkett boils it down to a simple question: "Why didn't
Governor Bush simply release his military pay files and
retirement points accounting records, which are the only
official records that will show that he satisfactorily and
honorably completed his service commitment?"
The simple answer may be that these records would prove the
opposite - that Bush never reported for duty after April
1972, and was simply "given" the points he needed for
discharge by senior officers who wanted to preserve his
"political viability" then - and now.
Bush has attempted to fend off charges that he did not
report for duty. When charges were raised about the time he
spent in Alabama in the fall of 1972, Bush insisted that he
reported for duty. "I can't remember what I did. I just - I
fulfilled my obligation," he said. Bush has specifically
disputed the recollection of ret. Brig. Gen. William
Turnipseed, who says he is "dead-certain" that Bush did not
report for duty in Alabama. ''I read the comments from the
guy who said he doesn't remember me being there, but I
remember being there," Bush said
Internet activists led by Iowa farmer Martin Heldt and
retired Air National Guard pilot Bob Rogers have been
campaigning to expose Bush's failure to report for duty
since May 23, 2000, when the Boston Globe first reported on
a "one-year gap" in Bush's military duty. Heldt created a
discussion board at Salon Magazine charging that Bush was
"AWOL", which spurred an explosion of grassroots Internet
activism.
Heldt and Rogers filed a Freedom of Information Act request
for Bush's military records, which provided overwhelming
evidence of Bush's missed duty, and served as the basis of
the articles in Democrats.com and TomPaine.com.
BUSH'S SCRUBBERS
http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=220
Richard Nixon was obsessed with leaks from within his
administration, and his secret team of "plumbers" worked to
stop these leaks, breaking the law as they went about their
dirty business.
George W. Bush is obsessed with any public record that
documents illegal, unethical, or embarrassing activities.
He has a secret team of "scrubbers" who make sure such
records mysteriously "disappear" from government offices
and newspaper websites.
Here are some records that have disappeared. If you find
more, please e-mail public@democrats.com.
Please note: long URL's often get chopped up in e-mail
transmissions, so be sure you have attempted to
"reassemble" a long URL before sending it to us. Also use
the search feature of any site you visit, because an old
article may have been archived with a different URL.
"Bush is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent,
amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured,
extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of
all these things." Christopher
Hitchens
"He's probably the least qualified person ever to be
nominated by a major party. Yes, he was elected governor of
Texas, and before that he ran a baseball team and lost a
lot of other people's money in the oil business. But what
has happened in the intervening five years to make people
believe that George W. Bush would be a good president?
What is his accomplishment? That he's no longer an
obnoxious drunk?"
Ron Reagan Jr.
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BLUERHYMER wrote: